South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth has demanded answers from the Scottish Government as 642 patients have waited longer than 12 hours to be seen in Accident and Emergency (A&E) in Ayrshire and Arran since the beginning of the year.

Analysis of the A&E waiting time data from the Scottish Government’s Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland by Colin Smyth shows that between the beginning of the year and week ending the 2nd June 2019 642 patients attending an NHS Ayrshire and Arran A&E department waiting longer than 12 hours to be seen. In comparison over the same time NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had 104 patients waiting longer than 12 hours despite seeing three times more patients at A&E departments.

The national standard for A&E waiting times is that a patient attending A&E should be seen, transferred or discharged within four hours. Since the beginning of the year this target has been broken 5,952 times with 642 of those patients waiting longer than 12 hours.

Colin Smyth has now demanded answers from the Scottish Government.

Colin Smyth said, “Across Ayrshire and Arran patients attending an A&E department are being left over 12 hours every week with 642 patients this year already had to wait that long. It is understandable that there may be some extenuating circumstance why an A&E department fails to meet the four hour A&E target but in Ayrshire and Arran it seems it is now a matter of routine.

Patients care can not continue to be treated in this way which is why I have demanded answers from the Scottish Government. The standards set by this Government are not being met in the Cabinet Secretary for Health’s own backyard in NHS Ayrshire and Arran and that must change.”